Pull Request resolves #47976

• I read the Generative AI policy and my contribution is either not created with the help of AI or is compatible with the policy and GNU/GPL 2 or later.

Summary of Changes

This PR fixes an issue where categories containing exclusively future-published items (or items with an expired publish_down date) are incorrectly counted as having active items, causing them to be improperly displayed in frontend category lists and modules

Implementation:

1. Added a new check_dates opt-in parameter to the core Joomla\CMS\Categories\Categories::_load() method. When enabled, the item-counting subquery strictly enforces publish_up and publish_down window conditions.
2. Enabled $options['check_dates'] = true; in the Category service constructors for com_content, com_contact, com_banners, and com_newsfeeds, as these core components actively utilize scheduled publishing dates.

Testing Instructions

1. Create a Parent category and its child category.
2. Create one more articles that belong to child category but have their publishing date somewhere in the future.
3. Create a menu item of type 'Category Blog' for the Parent category.
4. Go into the Parent Categories blog.

Actual result BEFORE applying this Pull Request

The category with the not yet published articles is displayed in the subcategories list

Expected result AFTER applying this Pull Request

The category with the not yet published articles is not displayed in the subcategories list

Link to documentations

Please select:

• Documentation link for guide.joomla.org:

• No documentation changes for guide.joomla.org needed

• Pull Request link for manual.joomla.org:

• No documentation changes for manual.joomla.org needed